Weapon Fun
Sitemap Weapon Fun * See also Heavily_Armed_Battleship * Sea also Infinite_Gratuitous_Violence * See Also Slaughterfest_Game_Element * See also Wrench << Proper Game Weapons * See also Drill --- --- --- --- --- "Gat in the hand" Bogart Big Sleep 1946 (gangster slang) Lotsa good material in those old movies. --- --- --- Simpler, Less Complicated Violence : Alot of the fancier weapons brought in for the civil war/Terrorist Rebellion would be lost/damaged/broken/out-of-ammo ... It was somewhat fun those early parts of BioShock 1 where you had just the Wrench and the Pistol. It might be good in the MMORPG to vary the play because every Player doesn't/can't/shouldn't carry the "kitchen sink" around with them, or often even possess the bigger/fancier/more complicated weapons. Developing skill and training instead of Gene Tonics for player development. Cleverness and learning how things can be used to your advantage ... Fights should also last longer than seven seconds giving a chance for tactics and handling unexpected results. --- --- --- Excuses for Why Combat Is Less Fatal In This MMORPG : Bullets harder to come by, so you wont be seeing Splicers or Player spraying bullets from Tommyguns too often. Ammunition quality isn't what it used to be - alot more homemade stuff (even more of the weapons are homemade). Quality of the ammo increases misfires, poor accuracy and range. Rapture is generally less bloodthirsty -- particularly when no longer is some homicadal monster running around bent on shooting up everywhere it goes (like Jack/Delta/Sigma). Similarly, huge ADAM Bounties being offered against 'monsters' are a bit rarer. Splicing has had a marked decline, with limited ADAM supplies. Remaining Splicers have 'evolved', with those remaining alive (surviving) being the ones who weren't so violent and more cautious. The people who never spliced also proved more productive. --- --- --- Practice Makes Perfect : With the game mechanics of the MMORPG having more realistic combat damage for the Player and enemies, you wont have endless opportunities (which you get when you instantly heal in those 'realistic' games) to figure out how things work in real combat situations. So there needs to be avenues to practice the needed skills (the interface certainly), to familiarize and use different objects and terrain, the risks of different action, and do coordination and tactics with your 'Team' NPCs. Doing this Practicing can be made as fun as combat is (maybe more, because the general lack of real consequences allows more screwing-up and its varying results), and the Player being subjected to hokey/kludgy training simulations. Non-lethal/non-destructive 'training' weapons and simulated 'targets' can be pretty amusing ( a NPC in a mask/costume labeled 'Splicer', attempting to act out typical Splicer tactics and antics, paper targets with odd cartoony pictures on them, odd 'fumble' effects, etc...) Combat results should NOT be dependent on a Player's connection latency (too many so-called 'realistic' games simply are NOT-realistic when they aggravate Connection Latency issues by doing such things as increasing Player movement rates ridiculously). Practice makes Players aware of their limitations without harsh Real results/outcomes, while they are figuring out how things work. Another game aspect will be : making combat as exciting as when in other Game's Action, where you (and enemies) "Die like Flies" constantly (in a 'hail of bullets'), and magically within seconds pop back to life. Effects can still be splashy and objects more reactive. Side effects upon the Player can be more varied, and enemies behavior/tactics changed/reactive in more ways to your Actions. Practice/experience can show the Player what to expect - all the variety of outcomes of different actions, yet still surprise them because of factors they missed seeing. --- ALSO - Instead of simple 'linear' improvements (like in GTA), the Weapons skill system would be a bit more complex. --- --- --- Speargun Amusements (Things to do After you Played the Game the 5th Time): One of the more novel aspects of the BioShock games was the Spear-gun pinning the Splicers to whatever was behind them, in combination with the 3D Ragdoll Physics for the struck bodies (often dragging/flying them a ways til the Spear pinned them in place). Actually the Spears appear to strike with ridiculous force able of making the body fly a dozen feet sideways, or carry it up to be tacked to a ceiling. Real Spears are sharp, with a low effective transmission of friction - in other works it would really tear through bodies if it had that kind of force. Anyway , I could see expanding that mechanism to include : * Grappling hooks or for zip-lines * Wedging doors (open or closed/) with spears (important for airlocks that wont open opposite side til first door sealed). * Making steps (out of spears) to climb a wall (handholds) * Whacking people with furniture, and such, and making them fly ... (greater use of the Physics Engine) * Using 'spears' to quickly string defensive wires (alarm tripwires and not just electro-juice fun). * Or for some needed construction activity, stretching a line across a gap (everyone should carry rope ladders and portable bridges with them). * Good ole Dynamite on a Spear bolt... (conversely a Medi-Pack delivered to someone out of reach) * Firing messages to someone who either you or they donit want to get close for otherwise. * Administering antibiotics to Alexander the Seasick Sea Serpent. Lets not forget that the Spear should do this even if the enemy ISN'T dead. Pin the Splicer to the wall where it squirms and shrieks in pain (or not if you just penetrated its clothing). So we could continue our Speargun fun in our no-longer 'slaughter-fest' themed BioShock MMORPG. --- --- --- The Illogical Weapon Upgrades in Infinite BS (What NOT To Do In Designing a Game) : Many/Most of the upgrades cannot be justified by skill improvements. How exactly paying for 'skill' from a Minuteman's Armory vending machine causes that upgrade anyway ??? (Its not a tonic or vigor). At least the Research Camera had some logic of telling you about target type weakpoints or somesuch... So these 'Upgrades' are a 'physical' change to the weapon you have ?, (WHICH YOU CONSTANTLY DISCARD !!! ... Because of the 2 weapon limit. But you do get to keep the one Sky-hokum). Infinite BS missed the boat by not having Alternate Ammo types, which would have given the Player some tactical variety to the limited gun types (the Player could have at one time). The MMORPG will have some limits (max weight for everything carried, and encumbrance causing impairment), and enhancements like Body Strength attributes you can improve (via exercise/training ... some being not getting tired as fast). Many MMORPG Character upgrades would be Skill learning via usage(experience) or earned by training (technique). Modified weapons can have direct effects on use (as does quality/damage-state of the weapon/ammo). But if you throw that weapon away, then that 'mod' is gone. Since the Player is affected by the total weight carried, other items like tools/ammo/supplies also become part of the limitation. Decisions then have to be made of what to carry -- to match the situation (ie- loaded down when 'safe', but preferring to be unencumbered when you fight/'have to act'...) You can also have things like packs, belts, satchels (even wheel-barrows), which you can Tactically drop to lose carry-weight during actions (do remember to pick it up when you are through ...). --- --- --- Weapons for The Game : Pistol with Illuminated Target (dot) as a Game Gimmick (Useful in All Those Low Light/Dark Conditions) This was first done in 1932, so its not new (by Rapture time), and with more 'Dark Corners' in the MMORPG would be further useful. This is a Flashlight and not a Laser (that's too high tech and just being started/experimented-with in the stable Surface World in Chaos Rapture times). Probably is an easy 'fabrication' project, with various less-than-optimal variations (optics being the most complicated bit). Consider that just 'Taping' a (still working) flashlight to a gun is 'sophisticated', for New Rapture. --- --- --- . . . . . . Obviously a homebuilt/homemade job. The problem is then building those fancy seeking shells for them (those sticky MINE projectile things also are a bit complex if not just a 'contact fuse' (when stepped on), and the tin can bomb full of gelignite (detonation via delayed fuse (somehow) along with some impact fuse -- dodgy as they tend to go off from just firing them). MMORPG will have a few 'adjustments' (basically you make your OWN Ammo). For these thing to have any kind of standardization (like sharing ammo out of vending machines), it is rather unlikely, and there should have been a better looking production model, than this hodge-podge half-assed thing. --- --- --- Levine and the writers should be made to hang from a mere pullup bar, by ONE HAND to see if they can do so for ONLY ONE MINUTE to demonstrate the stupidity of this design/idea. NOTE -- That only 4 Fingers (or 3 if the trigger is released ?) will have to support the WHOLE body's weight (and that while whipping about the Skyline as the game shows). No mention of taking a Vigor to achieve APELIKE STRENGTH to be able to carry out this feat (let alone the various jumps and Skyline hookings the Player is supposed to carry out). Ditto for Elizabeth. A whole lot of BS from a bunch of Know-Nothings ... --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . A Real anarchist's bomb seized in 1915. Imagine if the 'Nitro' Splicers in Rapture threw these (Or some Vox tossed such near a cringing Elizabeth ... Booker brings Elizabeth in a Sack to Wipe Away His Debt) --- --- --- PutToShame.jpg Splicerhuntin.jpg Cleversuchong.jpg PPM2.jpg Deathray_f.jpg Spies.jpg|When Ryan heard about these ... ColumbiasDoom.jpg|Falling To His Death while Screaming - Comstock's eventual Fate SongbirdBeware.jpg Realgatlinggun.jpg|Infinite BS designers haven't a clue, do they ? Iluv500lbguns.jpg|Gatling Guns were rather heavy. Yes, its Fantasy that Booker just picks one up, let alone fires it. So it must be more Quantum Magic. SplicersWithThese.jpg|Splicer Arts and Crafts -- Splicers had lots of time for hobbies in Raptures Chaos era --- --- --- Guns With Non-lethal Splicer-Nice Ammo in New Rapture : With the New Rapture preference for No-Kill solutions when dealing with the 'misunderstood' diseased/damaged Splicers, then you probably should be seeing Turrets with Water Cannon and concussion rounds as a method to dissuade disruptive Splicer activities near the City. * Plastic Bullets * Beanbag Shotgun Projectiles * Knockout Gas Grenades * Tranquilizer/Electro-stun Darts * Wrench with bag of lead pellets (Sap) * Teargas * Lasso * Mickey Finn in the booze bottle ... Drugged Jello (fish slime) Shots ? * "Flypaper" for Spider Splicers Many Splicers had tricky ways of countering most of these (the clever ones are the ones that survived) Actually hitting someone correctly would make use of these a bit harder (but the fights with smaller body counts needs more involved/skill-requiring interactions). - Anesthetic Bullets (Non-Lethal Pellets ?) : Definitely LOW velocity to keep from punching holes in the target - more to deliver the anesthetic for 'surface'/skin activation. You have to hit flesh because any 'armor' blocks the function of the Anesthetic (and it can't be too strong that it might imperil the target's life). Unfortunately normal 'bullets' sized projectiles usually don't work so good to deliver a sufficient amount, so shotgun or a custom made other-type of gun would be used. Medicine-type Anesthetic chemicals may be hard to come by. Similar dissuasion effects might use Pepper Eye Irritants (also expensive), or the good ole rock salt in the shotgun shell (lots of THAT about) Darts full 'knock out' drugs can be quite hazardous from both the 'injector' impact and the dosing of the chemicals affect (Assuming you can hit the target you can OVERhit the target). --- --- --- That's not a wrench .... THIS is a WRENCH !!! ---- ---- Just Wrong : ---- That One Handed Gatling Gun : . . . . . . . . Handheld. Absurd. Sheer Ignorance. A handle at one end and a hand-operated crank on its side. Very Heavy Huge chunk of metal (let alone the recoil). Booker allegedly could fire one of these. Hack Writer's Absurdity Incarnate. More Fantasy BS, making any kind of relevancy in the rest of the game dubious. Ooooh its Sciencey - NO NOT REALLY. (The game setting is not supposed to be some Harry Potter gorp, and if it was, it sure might have been far better). - And lets have these same Reality-Challenged 'artists'/game-designers and 'history-steeped' Writers hang by one arm from THEIR 'Skyhook' (another Sheer Absurdity), and have a 150 pound Gatling Gun hang chained to the OTHER hand. Limb Joints torn apart much ?? ... '' U Smokum much-much magic herb, Ken-osabe ?? '' --- Add the really wrong 'revolver upgrade' HERE the wrist buster ... hand cannon ? --- --- --- Its a common enough problem for some people to think they are designing a 'neat gun', but show they really haven't a clue about how the weapons mechanisms MUST work. Harmonica Gun ??? Another 'improved' gun that the person seeking to improve its design has NOT A CLUE about how its mechanism works. Hint - On a Revolver you cannot feed sideways into the cylinder chambers -- the revolver being a clever mechanism which took REAL talent decades(a century or two) of work to perfect. Those chambers 'hold in' the force of the bullets explosive propellant. There CANNOT BE any slot that feed bullets can enter through, as shown in this picture. The whole revolving cylinder would NEED to be removed and replaced, which at that point you have to completely rebuild the whole gun - which conflicts with the whole idea of it being an 'upgrade'. The thing doesn't even fit in a pocket or holster any more - one of the useful attributes of that kind of gun. Unfortunately you see this kind of stupid thing/idea frequently on the Internet, and also in so much of Columbia in Infinite BS. . . --- --- --- UNFUN What Happens When You Simplify Game Mechanics Too Much : When in a sequel of previous popular games, you Recycle/Copy/Clone/Regurgitate Combat/Gear Mechanics outside of their original game environment/setting/usage, they can wind up becoming inferior/illogical/problematic. When you try to have similar abilities to the previous games, but attempt/require absurd nonsensical justifications for some quite abnormal/gimmicky 'powers' (in Infinite BS being even far beyond Rapture's Genetic stuff), and use of mechanisms which are historically inappropriate/wholly-flawed (bad-fantasy engineered) even for whats supposedly 'Pulled From the Future'. WHAT HAPPENS ? You disturb the old balances by eliminating important combat elements : Like removing alternate ammo, the triggerable environmental hazards, severely limiting selectable alternate weapons (largely nullifying the utility of specialized upgrade widgetry/mods). This all, when done, destroys/limits potential alternate play-styles/tactics. ---- . . . . . . . . . . So many things not understood - a frequent failing for game 'artists' : * Pistol doesn't need a Telescopic Sight * Pistol supposed to be handy for Concealment - NOT with all this crap glombed onto it (Ditto for the bright red accessorizing) * Tiny little gas reservoir (for BBs it might work, but not bullets. Ditto for that short barrel) for 7? Rounds - NOT!!! * Silencer ? The velocity of a pistol is already slow/inaccurate enough (silencers work very short range) * High Pressure Gas system rather hard to create without Rubber Gaskets (No sign of how you FILL the Gas back up - a RATHER important feature) * Useless in Closed-quarter fighting (ie- most revolutionaries 'use' for a 'pistol') * Gas system - WHY ??? - Normal bullets easier to get and work perfectly well (special lead slugs for something like this ...) KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID !!! * As A Clandestine weapon, you might as well have made a simple gun. (and not ruin a good one -- what this looks to have started out as). * Kind of KLUDGED thing Most Users throw away in disgust (or it gets them killed) * A problematic Limited Use (if realistic) in a game where you can keep only 2 guns ... * Modding usually ruins the existing gun designs function (lazy artist just appropriated a real world gun) * Earns 3 Derps on the DERPILATION GAME GUN SCALE --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . . . . One of the interesting aspects of BS2 was the Defensive Situations where you had a large selection of tactical options to prepare the fighting area. * Trap type Grenades * Speargun Trap Spears * Trap Rivets * Trap Plasmids * Turret 'grenades' In BS1 you had the The Crossbow bolt wire traps. Amusing was the Splicers which blundered into the area which would prematurely set off the traps. The Splicer horde that usually descended on you during the Little Sister Harvesting a Corpse would attempt to use the entrances not protected by defensive traps. --- --- --- Electo-Gel Chemical Thrower Technology : Outgrowth of Plasma Rock Cutting technology used by the Tunnel boring machines developed in the mid-period of city Construction (as much more efficient than blasting). Was used to tunnel out many of the caverns used for industrial/manufacturing/warehousing, and creating many of the long distance transport tunnels (Mk2 AE Went straingt through more 'hills', than previosly gone around). Fracturing rock without cutting surfaces was a major improvement in speed and efficiency (and maintenance). Was weaponized by Ryan in 1958 to help counter the Splicer's advantages. --- --- --- Spear Gun Fun : In BS2 you got the Speargun, which could pin a corpse to a wall or ceiling, but was an insta-kill type because they didn't want to do complex human body animations of a still alive Splicer hanging by the various possible extremities (basically you got a limp flop which was easily done with the 'ragdoll' physics system they used). The MMORPG will have much more emphasis on Non-Fatal injuries, and with added proccessing capabilities and added programming (fundamentally open to Players ), many more 'live' animations of all kinds can be done. Pinning your Splicer opponent will be one of your tasks (you have to keep them from running away if you want to capture them), and that will be done by a whole range of different methods (Splicers use them to you as well), necessitating lots of appropriate animations and sound effects and 'caught' Splicer interaction behaviors. --- --- --- Git along Lil' Splicer, Git Along... : ''' Lasso Them Thar Splicers (if Cowboys just shot all the cows, their work would be so much easier). A Lasso might be quite useful against things that don't move much (Security Cameras, Turrets, Bait Dummies that trigger Traps), where a quick skilled throw around a corner and a good yank might be quite effective. Moving objects are a bit harder, as is over longer distances. Unfortunately Splicers might have Cowboy skills too. Possibly the Indiana Jones Whip might be applicable in the MMORPG. --- --- --- '''Ideas for Alternatives for Results of Combat/Conflict : * Player is Captured, Splicers have more goals giving them more options for what to do with a captured Player ** Ransom ** Stealing the Players stuff and just leaving them ** Taking the Player to 'The Boss' for someone else to decide ** Left for dead, Player is Rescued by fellow New Rapturians or a friendly Faction (or an un-friendly one) ** Confusion and fear of reinforcements arriving, and just running away * Player is cornered (not disabled) - standoff (til Calvary arrives or the other side just calls it quits) * Bribes (before combat) can work for opponents who may not care for the risk of being killed themselves * Player is wounded significantly - needs to be hauled back to civilization - Mission scrubbed. (Ditto for Mission critical 'Team' NPCs). * Splicer is cornered and surrenders (knowledge/hope that the City folk are allegedly 'saving' Splicers, or just doesn't care to 'die') - Players may encounter Splicers who don't like their miserable Splicer life, and have hope that being "Cured" will change things * Negotiate, "Parley" - both side would rather extricate themselves from a situation. Some Splicers are fighting other Splicer groups and would barter for cooperation. * Power Play - Players may encounter Splicers whose ambitions make them want to remain Splicers and prevent other Splicers who they have power over from 'defecting'. Territories being defended. The same would apply to non-Splicer NPCs you will run into in the Wild areas, and even inside New Rapture (ie- criminals) as there are Factions/groups/individuals in the city with different motives, which sometimes could lead to combat situations. So that the Groups and Factions don't remain static in their behaviors - particularly with the dynamics of the map as New Rapture grows and Player make contact (and start influencing events in more remote areas), some higher coordination might be needed to (intelligently) control those entities in a high-level manner. Gamemasters who set policies for the various groups and factions after reviewing any changed situations could adapt behaviors as appropriate. Control of areas is one of the more fluid aspects as Splicers move about and hold control of various resources in the ruined city. --- --- --- --- --- . .